Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu treated Trump 'like a flowerpot' at the January 2020 rollout of a Middle East peace plan, a former official says in a new book

• An ex-official said Netanyahu treated Trump "like a flowerpot" at a peace-plan unveiling, a book says.
• Barak Ravid details in the new book how the rollout of the plan soured White House-Israel relations.

A former Trump administration official said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu treated President Donald Trump "like a flowerpot" at a joint press conference unveiling a peace deal in January 2020, the journalist Barak Ravid said in a new book, according to the Forward.

Ravid's book, "Trump's Peace: The Abraham Accords and the Reshaping of the Middle East," published on Sunday, goes inside the at-times turbulent US-Israel relationship during the Trump years. Trump emphasized cultivating a close relationship with Israel and Netanyahu, and he put his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who already had a relationship with Netanyahu, in charge of the White House's Middle East relations.

The former Trump administration official told Ravid for the book that Netanyahu essentially used the US president as a prop for his own political gain ahead of Israel's elections in March 2020, according to the Forward.

In early 2020, the Trump administration unveiled a peace plan for the Middle East. The so-called deal of the century involved no discussions with Palestinian leaders, who promptly rejected it. Critics said it was misleading to call it a peace plan, dismissing it as little more than a PR stunt for Netanyahu ahead of an election.

"There was no meaningful consultation with the Palestinians over the past two years, and the result is a plan that would be very difficult for any Palestinian leader to accept and defend to their people," Dan Shapiro, the US ambassador to Israel under President Barack Obama, told Insider at the time.

The plan, crafted by Kushner, overwhelmingly favored Israel on several contentious issues. Among other elements, the plan pledged to keep Jerusalem as Israel's undivided capital, recognized Israeli sovereignty over settlements in the occupied West Bank considered illegal under international law, and stipulated that Israel would provide for Palestinian security (barring a Palestinian military).

Trump and other White House officials were rankled by Netanyahu's eager embrace of swift annexation of the West Bank, and Trump yelled "What the hell was that?" at his aides after Netanyahu left the White House, Ravid wrote, according to the Forward.

At the unveiling, "Netanyahu caused an uproar by suggesting the U.S. initiative was a green light for the annexation of the occupied West Bank," the Forward article said.

In interviews with Ravid for the book, Kushner recalled telling Netanyahu that "this is not the plan" and that "there's no way you are doing this," according to the Forward.

Shortly after the joint press conference, the White House convinced Israel to delay its annexation plans. Later that year, the White House advocated a deal for Israel to normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates in exchange for further pushing back annexation.

Later in June, Ravid's book reportedly says, Kushner told Netanyahu that unilaterally pursuing annexation "will be the biggest mistake you have ever made," adding, "Trump will come out against you."

Ari Berkowitz, then the White House's Middle East envoy, similarly put Netanyahu on notice that Trump wouldn't come to the rescue if Netanyahu found himself in trouble for too aggressively pursuing annexation, telling the prime minister, "It's almost certain Trump will tweet against you," Ravid's book says, according to the Forward.